Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy

existing literature on conditions for democracy

• ernest griffith: judeo-christian attitudes => democratic institutions
• opponents point to fascist italy and germany
• lipset criticizes lack of perspective, data in these analyses

methodology

• binary divide countries into democracies and dictatorships
• wealth, industrialization, urbanization and education as indices of economic development
• economic development strongly correlated with democracies

Lerner's theory of development => democratization

• urbanization => literacy => media growth => institutions of democracy, i.e. voting

Lipset's ideas on why development is good for democracy

• more impoverished lower class => more likely to revolt, so it makes sense that general wealth placates the lower class into accepting the necessary gradualism of democracy
• large middle class: reward moderate, penalize extremist groups
• upper class: has more respect for lower class if they are less impoverished, less incentive to try and gain absolute power because of decrease in marginal utility if they are wealthier
• Tocqueville: "mass society" of organizations independent of central state power necessary to sustain democracy => wealth allows these organizations to exist

Lipset on legitimacy

• Democracy more secure if conservative groups and symbols retained
• For example 10/12 European democracies are monarchies (as of paper publication in 1959)
• Test of legitimacy: is there a common political culture, symbols across parties? like Founding Fathers, Lincoln in America => if different parties don't recognize each other's symbols, then sign of lack of legitimacy
• Regime legitimacy affects stability more than effectiveness

Other random things

• stable democracy depends on groups, individuals having cross-cutting political affiliations
• Federalism, multi-party systems strengthen democracy if they divide across common bodies and not ethnic, religious, linguistic lines
• stable mid-20th century democracies are "post-politics", little difference between left and right